It has long been common practice to fill a ceramic mold with slip and then pouring same out leaving a film thereof coating the entire inside of the mold. Regardless of how this may be handled in large volume commercial operations, this requires for the small volume producer, or hobbyist, that the relatively heavy molds be maneuvered by hand. For the larger size of molds, this requires that a considerable weight be manipulated with the resulting inconvenience and other difficulties incident thereto. This becomes particularly critical when it is remembered that such manipulation is carried out prior to firing of the greenware and hence same is fragile and must, in spite of its weight, be handled with great care.
In spite of the existence of this problem over a long period of time, and its familiarity to all ceramic hobbyists, there has not, insofar as I am aware, been any device offered to the hobbyist or small producer for handling such molds which device is sufficiently versatile and/or adjustable to enable it to handle molds of a wide range of specific sizes and shapes, which is sufficiently reliable to handle such items without danger thereto or without the necessity of expending more than a moderate amount of personal effort by the operator thereof and which will be sufficiently inexpensive as to be acceptable to a wide market.
Accordingly, the objects of the invention include:
1. To provide a device for grasping, turning and dumping a mold which has been filled with slip.
2. To provide apparatus, as aforesaid, which can be handled with a minimum of personal effort by a small producer of pottery and/or by an individual hobbyist.
3. To provide apparatus, as aforesaid, which will be capable of grasping and handling molds under the conditions aforesaid without other than minimal danger of damage to mold and/or greenware.
4. To provide apparatus, as aforesaid, which will be adjustable through a wide range of length and width so as to accommodate molds of a wide range of sizes and shapes.
5. To provide apparatus, as aforesaid, which will be effective for the objectives above outlined but which will be of sufficiently simple construction as to be capable of original manufacture, operation and maintenance at a minimum of cost.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons acquainted with apparatus of this general type upon reading the following specification and inspection of the accompanying drawings.